Surround camera to generate a parking video signal and a recorder video signal from a single sensor

ABSTRACT

An apparatus comprising a sensor and a processor. The sensor may be configured to capture a first video signal having a first field of view. The processor may be configured to generate a second video signal having a second field of view and a third video signal having a third field of view. The second video signal may generate the second field of view to include a first portion of the first video signal. The third video signal may generate the third field of view to include a second portion of the first video signal. The second portion may be processed to remove possible warping present on a bottom portion of the first video signal. The first and second portions may comprise an area less than the first field of view.

This application relates to co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 13/949,624, filed Jul. 24, 2013, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to cameras used in automobiles generally and, more particularly, to a surround camera to generate a parking signal and a recording signal from a single sensor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventional automobiles using surround cameras are becoming increasingly popular. Such cameras are typically used to facilitate parking by a driver. Some surround cameras are even used for automatic parking by the vehicle. In such systems, the driver is presented with a “bird's eye” view of the vehicle. These cameras typically do not support recording. At the same time, dash cameras that continuously record video in case an accident happens are growing in popularity. Such cameras use a single camera that is mounted on a windshield.

The view that a surround camera presents to a driver for parking assistance and the view that is presented for surround recording are different views. A parking camera needs to point relatively downward. A recording camera needs to point relatively straight. With conventional approaches, customers will need to install two separate sets of cameras, which means higher cost and installation complexity.

It would be desirable to implement a single surround camera that may be used to supply views for both parking and recording.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns an apparatus comprising a sensor and a processor. The sensor may be configured to capture a first video signal having a first field of view. The processor may be configured to generate a second video signal having a second field of view and a third video signal having a third field of view. The second video signal may generate the second field of view to include a first portion of the first video signal. The third video signal may generate the third field of view to include a second portion of the first video signal. The second portion may be processed to remove possible warping present on a bottom portion of the first video signal. The first and second portions may comprise an area less than the first field of view.

The objects, features and advantages of the present invention include providing a camera that may (i) use a single sensor to generate multiple views, (ii) process a signal received by the sensor and/or (iii) be implemented in a surround camera environment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the appended claims and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a context of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view of a vehicle implementing an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating various fields of view from a sensor;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating various connections; and

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a two field of view dashboard display.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a system 100 is shown in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The system 100 generally comprises a vehicle 102, and a number of cameras 110 a, 110 b and 110 c. The cameras 110 a-110 c may be connected within the vehicle 102 through one or more busses. The busses may be implemented as CAT5, CAT6, Universal Serial Bus (USB) or other types of cables and/or connectors. The particular type of cabling used may be varied to meet the design criteria of a particular implementation.

Referring to FIG. 2, a top view of the system 100 is shown. The vehicle 102 is shown with a number of cameras 110 a, 110 c, 110 d and 110 n. The particular number of cameras 110 a-110 n implemented may be varied to meet the design criteria of a particular implementation. The vehicle 102 may be described as an automobile. However, the particular type of vehicle may be varied to meet the design criteria of a particular implementation. For example, the vehicle 102 may be a truck, or other type of vehicle operated by a driver.

Referring to FIG. 3, a diagram illustrating a video feed 150 from one of the cameras 110 a-110 n is shown. The video feed 150 generally comprises a portion 160 and a portion 170. The portion 160 may be used for a first view. The portion 170 may be used for a second view. The portion 160 may include a field of view (e.g., a horizontal view) that may be usable for a dash mounted recorder. The view 170 includes a field of view (e.g., a surround view) that may be usable for a surround-type parking implementation. The view 160 and the view 170 may record actions (e.g., other vehicles, people, etc.) around the vehicle 102. In some embodiments, the view 160 and the view 170 may overlap. In other embodiments, the view 160 and the view 170 may be disjoint.

Referring to FIG. 4, a diagram of the various connections to the cameras 110 a-110 n are shown. A circuit 200 may have a number of inputs 180 a-180 n. The circuit 200 generally comprises a circuit 190 and a circuit 192. The circuit 190 may be implemented as a counter/connector circuit. The circuit 192 may be implemented as a processing and/or encoding circuit. In one example, the circuit 190 may be implemented on the same integrated circuit as the circuit 192. In another example, the circuit 190 may be implemented as a separate integrated circuit from the circuit 192. In another example, the circuit 190 may be hardware and/or firmware implemented as a subset of the circuit 192. The circuit 190 may present a signal (e.g., SLVS) to the circuit 192. The signal SLVS may be a video signal. In one example, the signal SLVS may be a selected one of the signals V1 a/V1 b-VNa/VNb.

The circuit 200 may be connected to a block (or circuit) 152 and/or a block (or circuit) 154. The circuit 152 may be implemented as a storage device. For example, the circuit 152 may be implemented as be a SD card, a built-in drive, or other storage medium. The circuit 154 may be a connectivity device, such as a Wi-Fi device, a 3G/4G device, or other device that may be used to transmit the video signal SLVS to/from the processing and/or encoding circuit 192. The processing and/or encoding circuit 192 may present a signal to the display 150 (for viewing), a signal to the storage device 152 (for storage), or a signal to the connectivity circuit 154 (for connection to external devices, such as the Internet).

The circuits 110 a-110 n may be implemented as camera modules. The circuit 110 a may be implemented having a sensor 194 a and a processing chip 196 a. The sensor 194 a may include a lens. The cameras 110 b-110 n may have similar implementations. The circuits 196 a-196 n may be implemented as serial/deserial (SERDES) circuits. The circuits 196 a-196 n may be used to transmit the video signals V1 a/V1 b-VNa/VNb to the circuit 200.

The system 100 may provide a design to generate a number of surround camera views as well as a number of horizontal views for recording. Each of the cameras 110 a-110 n may present a first view (e.g., V1 a-VNa) for recording, and a second view (e.g., V1 b-VNb) for viewing. The circuit 192 may be used to process one or more of video signals V1 a-VNb. The processing may provide de-warping and/or other processing to remove potential distortions found in a wide angle lens-type sensor. The de-warping may be implemented on one of the views (e.g., 170) without interrupting the generation of another of the views (e.g., 160).

Referring to FIG. 5, the diagram of a dashboard 300 is shown. The dashboard 300 includes a screen (or display) 310 and a screen (or display) 320. In one example, the screen 310 and the screen 320 may be implemented as separate views on a single screen. In another example, the screen 310 and the screen 320 may be separate screens.

Each of the cameras 110 a-110 n may include a wide angle (e.g., 180 degree field of view or more) lens that may include full high definition (HD) (or higher) resolution sensors, pointed slightly downward. For example, a fish eye lens-type sensor may be implemented. The bottom portion of the video feed may be cropped and corrected for geometric distortion in the circuit 192 to generate the view 170 showing the ground near the vehicle 102. In some embodiments, a central portion of the video feed may be cropped to generate the view 160. The resolution of each of the views 160 and/or 170 may be increased or decreased, but may be sufficient for presenting a “bird's eye” display. For example, the feeds V1 a/V1 b-VNa/VNb may be 1920×600 lines of resolution. The SoC circuit 190 may combine a number of such feeds (e.g., 2, 4, 8, etc.) into a single bird's eye view. Standard resolutions used for recording (e.g., the view 160) may include 1920×1080, 1280×720, 640×480, 720×576, 720×480, etc. However, the particular resolution implemented may be varied to meet the design criteria of a particular implementation. For the parking view (e.g., the view 170), resolutions such as 640×480 or 800×600 or 1280×720 may be used. The parking view may be based on either the rear camera view, or by stitching together two or more smaller views in the circuit 190 from the various cameras 110 a-110 n. Each parking view may be relatively small, such as 640×200 or 480×200.

The circuit 200 may generate a full view by processing with a “dewarp” engine. A recorded frame may also be implemented for the various feeds. The recording signals V1 a-VNa do not normally need to be interrupted for displaying the parking mode signals V1 b-VNb. One or more of the recording signals V1 a-VNa may be used to provide driver assist analytics. For example, a lane departure warning may be implemented.

The circuit 200 may implement a calibration process. For example, the cameras 110 a-110 n may slightly move during the life of the vehicle 102. The processor 190 may compensate for such movement. The particular type of compensation implemented may be varied to meet the design criteria of a particular implementation.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising: a sensor configured to generate a first video signal having a first field of view; and a processor configured to (a) generate a second video signal having a second field of view and a third video signal having a third field of view both from said first video signal generated by said sensor and (b) encode said second video signal, wherein (i) said second video signal is encoded for recording to a storage device, (ii) said third video signal is presented to a display for viewing, (iii) at least one of said second video signal and said third video signal is processed to remove possible warping present on a bottom portion of said first video signal, (iv) said second and third fields of view each comprise an area less than said first field of view and (v) said second field of view and said third field of view are generated without installing separate sets of cameras.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first video signal is (i) cropped to generate said second field of view usable as a dash mounted recorder to record actions around a vehicle and (ii) cropped and corrected to generate said third field of view showing a surround view on a dash mounted display.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said sensors are used to capture a surround view of a vehicle to display in one of a plurality of portions of a dash mounted display.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sensor comprises a wide angle lens.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sensor comprises a fish eye lens configured to capture at least one of (i) a 180 degree field of view and (ii) said first field of view greater than 180 degrees.
 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sensor comprises a fish eye lens configured to capture said first field of view less than 180 degrees.
 7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said third field of view comprises said bottom portion of said first video signal cropped and corrected for geometric distortion.
 8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second video signal is de-warped by said processor without interruption of the generation of the third video signal by said processor.
 9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second field of view for recording to said storage device is encoded to have a higher resolution than said third field of view presented to said display.
 10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said processor is further configured to implement a calibration process to compensate for a movement of said sensor.
 11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said storage device comprises at least one of a SD card and a built-in drive.
 12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said processor comprises a dewarp engine.
 13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said processor is further configured to implement driver assist analytics based on said first video signal.
 14. A method for generating video signals, comprising the steps of: (A) capturing a first video signal having a first field of view using a sensor; (B) generating a second video signal having a second field of view and a third video signal having a third field of view both from said first video signal generated by said sensor, and (C) encoding said second video signal, wherein (i) said second video signal is encoded for recording to a storage device, (ii) said third video signal is presented to a display for viewing, (iii) at least one said second video signal and said third video signal is processed to remove possible warping present on a bottom portion of said first video signal, (iv) said second and said third fields of view each comprise an area less than said first field of view and (v) said second field of view and said third field of view are generated without installing separate sets of cameras.
 15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said first video signal is (i) cropped to generate said second field of view usable as a dash mounted recorder to record actions around a vehicle and (ii) cropped and corrected to generate said third field of view showing a surround view on a dash mounted display.
 16. The method according to claim 14, wherein step (A) is repeated a plurality of times to capture a surround view of a vehicle to display on one of a plurality of portions of a dash mounted display.
 17. The method according to claim 14, wherein step (A) implements a wide angle lens.
 18. The method according to claim 14, wherein step (A) implements a fish eye lens configured to capture at least one of (i) a 180 degree field of view and (ii) said first field of view greater than 180 degrees.
 19. The method according to claim 14, wherein step (A) implements a fish eye lens configured to capture said first field of view less than 180 degrees.
 20. The method according to claim 14, wherein said third field of view comprises said bottom portion of said first video signal cropped and corrected for geometric distortion. 